Ms. Chin, who represents Chinatown, hit the African-American Ms. Cumbo for claiming during a Council hearing yesterday that the New York City Housing Authority was allowing large numbers of non-English-speaking Asians into two of its developments to the apparent exclusion of other groups. The Hong Kong native also criticized Ms. Cumbo’s later suggestion to the New York Post that the city house people “by culture.”

“I am troubled by Council Member Cumbo’s recent comments regarding Asian-Americans who live in public housing within her district, as well as her comments about ‘housing people by culture,'” Ms. Cumbo said, adding that she personally respected her colleague despite the remarks. “I’m concerned about the potentially negative impact that her comments could have on Asian-American residents in her district.”

Ms. Chin, a leader in the Council’s dominant Progressive Caucus, said that Ms Cumbo’s statements had violated the duty of politicians to act as a unifying force in their districts.

“This is New York City, after all, and it is our responsibility as Council members to do everything in our power to bring our constituents together,” she said, adding that she had since offered to help Ms. Cumbo with outreach to Asian-American residents. “I hope to work with her office to arrange meetings or forums that will help her build stronger relationships with her Asian-American constituents. I look forward to speaking with her further about that.”

Ms. Cumbo did notimmediately respond to requests for comment. Her remarks yesterday were posed as a question to NYCHA Chairwoman and Chief Executive Shola Olatoye, and the councilwoman stressed that “we love” the new Asian residents of the public housing buildings in her district, even as she questioned why there were so many of them.

“We want to understand, what the tenants want to understand is how is it—because the way they’re understanding it is that people from all ethnicities could be moving into the district, but that’s not actually the case,” she said. “They are having challenges in terms of understanding how one particular ethnic group, that speaks the same language across the board—I know that there are many different languages and many different dialects—but how is it that one specific ethnic group, has had the opportunity to move into a development in large numbers.”

Ms. Cumbo later released a statement stressing that her purpose was only to find out if NYCHA was giving Asian-Americans a “cultural preference priority,” and apologized for hurt feelings.

“It was not my intention to offend the Asian community or any other cultural group that calls NYCHA home,” she said.

Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng, another Chinese-American, also criticized Ms. Cumbo on her personal Facebook page, on which she linked an article about the Brooklyn councilwoman’s statements.

“There are more effective and respectful ways to address the shortage of affordable housing and helping those in need regardless of the color of their skin or where they have come from,” Ms. Meng wrote.

The congresswoman expanded upon her comments in a press statement sent Friday night, noting that many Asian-Americans live in poverty despite “model minority” stereotypes. She singled out Ms. Cumbo’s comments about potentially distributing housing along ethnic lines for special opprobrium.

“The diverse mosaic of our city—and all the different cultures living together—is what makes it so great, and gives it its strength. That should never be tampered with, and segregating Asian Americans or any other ethnicity must never, ever occur,” she wrote.

Meanwhile Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim, the first Korean-American elected to the State Legislature, called Ms. Cumbo’s remarks “distinctly disturbing” and demanded a full apology to the Asian community.

“The latest comments by Ms. Cumbo raises clear red flags for me as I am still unclear of her intentions behind her questions,” he said in a statement to the press sent over the weekend. “I encourage Council Member Cumbo to stop making excuses and apologize to all New Yorkers for her ignorant comments. She keeps digging a bigger hole for herself and creating a divide between communities in her district and in our city.”

Updated to include comment by Mr. Kim, and Ms. Meng’s follow-up remarks.

Asians leave their countries, often jammed into shipping containers, and guess what.. they work hard, they achieve, and they succeed. Blacks for the most part cry about slavery and how the white man's system is "against" them.

What did you expect??? The blacks are the only ones allowed to discriminate and charge discrimination - just listen to Al Sharpton et al. They apparently feel that they have a right to a sacred status. Perhaps one of these days they will try to be just ordinary, law-abiding, U.S. citizens ;-) What a treat that will be :-)

Again, Councilwoman Cumo DOES NOT WANT ASIANS in the neighborhood ONLY BECAUSE the presence of Asians makes things MORE EXPEN$IVE for poor Blacks, who are already struggling. It has NOTHING to do with race AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH GENTRIFICATION. If a bunch of young White Hipsters moved in, it would be the same thing -- AND THEN NOBODY COULD AFFORD THE RENTS!!!!!!

Black people wake the hell up!Listen to how these creatures love to point the finger when you say something, but they have been doing this sort of BS for centuries,and getting away with it, and would love for the world to believe that they can do whatever they want?

Herman Dayoleary and Barrett Williams, if you want people to take your comments seriously, grammar is very important. And for your Information Bianca Smith, Sanchez is a very common last name in the Hispanic community not necessarily Mexico. Talk about profiling...

At least the Asian will keep the building clean. In a way, I think she is right. Put all the Asian residents in one building, and the "Others" in another building. Go back in one year. Want to bet there would be a BIG Difference in the condition of the buildings...

To all Asians and East Indians who feel offended by Cumo's remarks: It has NOTHING to do with your race/culture. As a whole, you're easy to live with (among). I live in an East Indian neighborhood right now and it's chill. It's when certain races/cultures move into poor neighborhoos (usually BLACK and BROWN neighborhoods), rents/property values GO UP and this inevitably displaces the original population who cannot afford to compete with the newcomers. It has nothing to do with any of you being Asian or Indian or Hindu or Muslim or Sikh or Buddhist. Developers see you moving into a neighborhood and all they see is $$$$$$$$$$$$$ (!!!!!) Blacks can't compete with that.

If, raciest can divide humanity, then humanity can and will fail. “A house divided against its self will fall.” Humanity is a house that is built from all people.
There is no such thing or word as “race” that is a word intended and used to divide humanity.

The Welfare State, that is what they should call New York. Subsidized housing is just part of that pie.Since blacks have been on the lower end of the economic scale for so long that they have come to view the "projects" as their domain. The next group that threatened them for that space were the "Puerto Ricans" and I remember how they screamed to Clayton Powell to do something about it. I guess now it's the Asians turn. I do not think subsidies and welfare help the black people. I think it actually harms them and keeps them at or near the bottom of the pile. You have to be old like I am to see the social history that are the projects in NY. They were built after WW2 and were populated mostly by white veterans as they assimilated back into a peacetime society. Then when they returned to work they moved on to buying homes with the help of the GI bill. Minorities started to fill in the vacancies in the projects. Blacks mostly, but a politician name Carmine Desapio started importing Puerto Ricans so that they could vote. They ended up in the projects. Many are still there but many have left and moved into mainstream society. The blacks still remain in about the same numbers. Now along comes this wave of Asian Immigrants. Blacks should not worry about these people, they will not be there for long. They value work and education above all else. They will quickly be gone. Unfortunately black people will remain the dominant population in the projects. How sad, they to could move on if only given the right leadership and motivation